Sunless Skies Heads to Kickstarter, Doubles Goal in a few Days

Sunless Skies Heads to Kickstarter, Doubles Goal in a few Days

The sequel to Failbetter Games’ Sunless Sea was announced 4 months back. Now a Kickstarter campaign has begun to help along the development process. Not only that, but the still in progress Sunless Skies has already doubled their £100,000 goal (approx $125,000 USD) in just a number of days.

For those unaware, the game takes place in a alternate history where the British decide to leave Earth due to failing global politics. Among the stars, the Empire finds new worlds to colonize and new resources to exploit. The Queen builds her throne atop a ‘clockwork sun’ where she has the power to reward or punish her servants with time itself.

However, there will be resistance against this new cosmic command. Settlers on certain planets are looking to keep their independence and mysterious beings known as ‘the Judgements’ are keeping an eye on all things. Well at least they were, until these beings (who are literal stars) started being removed by an unknown force.

Sunless Skies is a survival RPG with elements of exploration and roguelike progression thrown in for good measure. You seek out the stars in your spaceship while playing as the captain. You can customize this leader to have different abilities and personality traits. Maybe you’ll be someone who prefers to use the skill of hearts where you can charm you way out of conflict.

Then there are ambitions and facets (your background) that will help fill in the ever growing (and highly important) story. Maybe wounds from an old war has lead you to try and find a corner of the universe to call your own so you can avoid any more bloodshed. The possibilities will keep changing and are endless.

With all three stretch goals already having been met (new character origins, legendary wrecks, and smuggling) it should be interesting to see what else Failbetter has planned. It’s obvious from their updates that they weren’t prepared to see this kind of support for the project.

But their history with the popular Sunless Seas means you should keep your eyes on the (British) heavens, and get ready for a real spectacle. The Kickstarter campaign for this PC/Mac exclusive ends on March 3rd.